Allison Ginsberg 

My paintings evolve by my working through and against previous moves on the canvas. This call-and-response method, at the fundamental level of color and surface, gives each painting room to develop into its idiosyncratic form.  As part of a larger body of work, however, I seek to invoke, within the expansive individuality of these works, a shared essence of the dialectic of internal and external space.

Artist Statement
In my paintings, I use domestic and cosmic imagery to give visual form to the dialectic of external and internal space. These two zones complement each other as the two halves of a metaphor for abstract painting. The liminal space between them is fertile ground, as my moves on the canvas continuously shape and reform their boundary. The imagery I begin with, whether it arises from my imagination or my surroundings, functions as a point of departure for my process of making a painting. 

What constitutes the domestic is historically thought of as commonplace, mundane and banal. However, the order inherent in this conception masks an overstimulated realm that is seductive and unsettled – neither wholly private nor public. It is decorated, occupied and loaded with erotic energy. Objects, such as scarves and porcelain pitchers occupy a fuzzy area between useful and decorative. The domestic is a model for painting, where the tension between the internal and external is an essential element.

The other space that I explore is slippery and ungraspable. The cosmic evokes the visual at the limit of uncertainty, imagination and representation. My paintings are receptive to this boundary of uncertainty and inscribe it in form, as early Shakers did in their gift drawings of the mid-19th century. Ann Lee, the 18th century Shaker leader, reportedly said, “I look into the windows of heaven, and see what there is in the invisible world.” Not building solely from material or reason, I approach this space though abstract relationships that acknowledge the irresolution within.

The works all share a stripped-down elaboration and a painterly compression. It is important that the images be described without being overwrought; the tension between the ambiguously painterly and the graphic must remain in order for the paintings to be active. Identifiable objects wind in and out of my paintings, but I do not feel obligated to subscribe to one means of depiction – it is the exploration of finding new ways to describe that motivates me. My source imagery that is literal and familiar, such as a digital clock in ‘Electric Shaker’ or light channeling through blinds as in ‘Light Leak,’ usually stretches to the edge of the recognizable. Within this process, I thereby invite the viewer to make their own visual connections to my paintings.